Chopard Alpine Eagle Luxury Sports Watch Collection - Hands-On, Price
The luxury sports watch is one of the most dynamic categories in the watch industry. In 1972, with the Royal Oak, Audemars Piguet and Gerald Genta defined the genre: a sporty but clearly expensively-crafted steel watch with an integrated bracelet and shaped case. Most high-end brands gave their take on the category. Patek Philippe with the Nautilus, Vacheron Constantin with the 222 and the Overseas, Cartier with the Santos, IWC with the Ingenieur, Piaget with the Polo and Chopard with the St. Moritz. Back in 1980, this watch was Karl-Friedrich Scheufele's (now Chopard's co-President) first watchmaking project And its design is back with the new Chopard Alpine Eagle.Background storyAs Chopard re-enters the luxury sports watch market, the Alpine Eagle is a state-of-the-art reinterpretation of the St. Moritz. The brand made a great job in modernizing this 1980 design into a contemporary watch. Interestingly, the watch was reborn today as Karl-Friedrich Scheufele's son, Karl-Fritz, support

Historical Perspective - The Doxa Sub 300, The Dive Watch Personified - Monochrome Watches
Back in Baselworld 2016, Doxa introduced its 50th Anniversary Sub model, a great dive watch with unquestionable pedigree. We will discover why this dive watch is so important by looking back at an early Doxa Sub 300, belonging to one of the preeminent Doxa collectors – and a great friend of Monochrome and me, personally – Mr. Marco Thier. By examining the story behind its creation, I hope to shed the light on the importance of the Doxa Sub in the history and the evolutionary course of the dive watch in general.When discussing iconic dive watches, there are plenty of models that come in mind and almost anyone has his own list to exhibit. Leaving aside personal preferences for a moment, there are some models that defined the concept of dive watch (or were so radical that virtually changed the game). Quite simply, they encompassed the proper formula of technical and design elements, which made them primus inter pares in this segment of the industry. Besides the heavyweights, u

Auction - Highlights "Complications: Dates & Calendars" Ineichen
Ineichen, the fast-growing auction house based in Zurich, seems to have a thing for both modern, important watches as well as something that is dear to us, independent watchmaking. Following thematic sales focused on one specific material?or an iconic watch celebrating its 50th anniversary, we’ve seen an October sale dedicated to tourbillons and skeletonization. Today, we’re announcing the second part of this thematic auction, this time devoted to date and calendar complications… And as you can guess, the selection of watches to be featured is certainly more about complex displays than the classic date window. Here are 5 of our favourites.?Ineichen’s “Complications: Dates & Calendars” sale will be taking place in Zurich and online on December 3th, 2022. It features 54 watches ranging from classic high-end calendars from established manufacturers like Vacheron Constantin or A. Lange & Sohne (with a wide range of Datograph models), as well as h

News: IWC Ceralume, The First Fully Luminous Ceramic Watch
The use of luminescent materials on watches is far from new… Soon after the discovery of radium and its properties (and dangers…) by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, watch dials – markers, numerals and hands – have been coated with radium and then different substances (tritium, Super-LumiNova) to produce light in the dark. Fully luminous watch dials are a far more recent trend, and fully luminous watch cases are still a rarity that we only covered twice in this magazine – with Bell & Ross and Tockr. IWC, which has already shown its appeal for lume, now unveils Ceralume, a proprietary luminous ceramic technology and the first fully luminous ceramic watch… But don’t get crazy too soon, it is still a concept and isn’t commercialized.While the idea of a fully luminous watch case isn’t new, the difference with IWC is that the brand’s engineering division XPL has developed an unprecedented luminous ceramic compound – Bell &

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reversoa Eclipse Van Gogh Sunflowers - Monochrome Watches
This year, 2015, is the year that the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam pays tribute to the 125th anniversary of the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. And Jaeger-LeCoultre joins them for this memorable event by releasing?a limited edition Reversoa Eclipse that features Van Gogh’s infamous Sunflowers painting. Since the Reversoa Eclipse has the unique feature to show or reveal a dial, the enamel dial with Van Gogh’s painting in enamel, can be discretely hidden, or shown, by choice of the wearer.Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) is?famous for his post-impressionist works and has had a?great influence on twentieth century art. During is short life?he painted nearly 2,200 paintings, of which?860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolour paintings, drawings, sketches and prints. For more than a century, his work is a great source of inspiration for many painters. The painting that is featured in this Reversoa Eclipse is called Sunflowers, hence the name of the watch, Reve